Operations and Exercises

U.S. Central Command engagement activities include, first and foremost, current operations, as well as combined exercises, security assistance, combined training, combined education, military contacts, humanitarian assistance, and other activities. This level of activity mandates maintaining access to facilities and building strong relationships with regional leaders.

Joint and Coalition exercises provide the framework upon which components build warfighting capability and support USCENTCOM. Exercises include training at all levels, from company small unit tactics to large-scale multi-national exercises.

Military-to-military contact also supports the Peacetime Engagement Strategy by improving relations with countries in the area of responsibility through seminars, and individual and small group meetings. This interaction allows for discussion of issues, develops individual relationships, and builds trust, confidence, and cohesion between the U.S. Army and those militaries of countries throughout the AOR.

USCENTCOM conducts Military Information Support Operations (MISO) to support Department of Defense communications specifically targeted to decrease support for violent extremist organizations, reduce terrorist recruitment and activities, increase force protection to U.S. and Coalition military forces, and increase cooperation and interoperability with our regional and Coalition partners. These activities support USCENTCOM's assigned military missions and are coordinated with U.S. government agencies and are implemented in accordance with U.S. Code and Department of Defense policies. MISO activities in Iraq and Syria focus on delegitimizing and dispelling ISIS falsehoods, countering extremist narratives, and providing proactive factual information aimed at avoiding and reducing civilian casualties. Outside Iraq and Syria, the focus of MISO activities is to counter, deter, and degrade disinformation campaigns aimed at endangering U.S. and Coalition military forces and activities.

Over the next 12 months, USCENTCOM and its subordinate commands will continue to conduct activities, primarily through the use of terrestrial and satellite television, print media, radio, text messages, social media, and through websites to deter, degrade and reduce terrorist acts and recruitment of adversaries such as ISIS, Taliban, and Al Qaeda. Separately, these same means will be used to conduct MISO to counter malign influence and state sponsors of terrorism, namely: Iran and Syria, as well as their surrogates and proxies operating across the region. These activities are primarily focused on audiences residing in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Tajikistan, Lebanon, and United Arab Emirates.

From November 2017 through the summer of 2018, USCENTCOM will focus activities using terrestrial and satellite television and radio to counter ISIS’s narrative; promote alternative narratives to violence, hatred, and extremism; reduce the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq and Syria. These efforts will be focused in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, and United Arab Emirates.